Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 107 Zheng Zhilong’s movements
The Tianfei flag fluttered in the sea breeze, and a ten-foot-long three-masted ship was moored in Xiamen Bay.

"Brother Lin, what do you think of this boat?" Xu Letian accompanied Lin Hai to look carefully on the boat and asked after returning to the deck.

"Yes, the ironwood hull is a bit old, but the size is just right." Lin Hai said and asked Zheng Tingqiu next to him, "Brother Zheng, what do you think?"

Zheng Tingqiu nodded when he heard this, indicating that the ship was of good quality. He must be better at Guangzhou Shipbuilding than Lin Hai, so Lin Hai specially took him with him.

Seeing them both nodding, Xu Letian turned to the middle-aged man beside him and said, "Qi Lao, please make an offer. Lin Qianhu has taken a liking to this boat."

The man named Qi Lao was wearing a short-fighting suit and a net scarf on his head. His face was roughened by the sea breeze. He looked to be in his forties.

Hearing Xu Letian's words, Qi Lao laughed and said: "This boat was robbed last year. I, Yang Qi, don't know how much money it is worth. Anyway, a dozen brothers died when we robbed the boat. I will be an official in the same court soon." , why don’t you, Lin Qianhu, just decide on a price first.”

This man was originally a fisherman in Zhangzhou, the seventh in his family, so he was named Yang Qi. He and his brother Yang Liu went to sea to become pirates more than ten years ago. In just a few years, they gathered a team of hundreds of people, and started to fight in the Quan, Zhangzhou, Chaoshan, etc. It is also somewhat famous.

The home base of Yang Liu and Yang Qi was in Yingang, Dongfan. Later, Li Dan sent Yan Siqi to colonize Dongfan. The two brothers joined Li Dan and persuaded Yan Siqi to set up a water village in Yingang. In other words, it was also Li Dan. The veteran of the gang.

These two people are old acquaintances of Xu Xinsu. Compared with Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin, Liu Xiang and others who joined later, the friendship between the Yang brothers and the Xu family is deeper.Therefore, Xu Letian set out to win over these two men after returning from Hirado. Not long ago, the two brothers were finally persuaded to leave Zheng Zhilong and come to Xiamen with their men and ships.

Now, Xu Xinsu is working with Yu Zigao, trying to get Yang Liu, Yang Qi and their brothers into the camp system.For this reason, Xu Xinsu also changed their names, Yang Liu changed his name to Yang Lu, and Yang Qi changed his name to Yang Ce, just to sound less gangster.

At the moment, Xu Xinsu is not yet at ease with Yang Lu and Yang Ce, so she did not call them when they entertained Lin Hai last night. Later, she heard that Lin Hai said that she wanted to buy Guangzhou Shipbuilding, so she introduced them to Lin Hai this morning.Guangzhou ships are expensive to build and are rare in the Fujian Sea. Yang Ce also grabbed one in Guangdong last year.

"4000 taels of silver, what do you think, Qi Lao?" Lin Hai had worked as a bookkeeper in the shipyard, so he immediately quoted the price.

"Bright and bright, Lin Qianhu is indeed bright and bright, this boat is yours." Yang Ce laughed when he heard this. He thought that Lin Hai would negotiate the price with him, but unexpectedly, he directly offered a price that he could not refuse.

This Guangzhou boat is similar to Li Zhongguo's boat. If it was just launched, it would probably be worth 4000 taels. But now that it has been used for several years, it is obviously not worth this price.Lin Hai quoted the price based on the new ship, also thinking of making friends with the Yang brothers.

Unlike Xu Xinsu, Lin Hai knew the history behind it, and the Yang brothers did not let down the Xu family after they were recruited.During Xu Xinsu's lifetime, the Yang brothers had always been responsible for his military force. On the eve of Zheng Zhilong's adoption, the two men went to sea again as pirates, and they probably took away Xu Letian, who was wanted by the government at the time.

The Yang brothers now have more than 800 people under their command, including more than 1000 family members. It is not easy to feed so many mouths.What Lin Hai is most in need of right now is money, so giving them a little profit is nothing.

Everyone chatted some more on the boat. Lin Hai thought that the Yang brothers had just arrived from Singang, so he asked, "What is Thief Zheng busy with now?"

"After this guy came back from Japan, he was busy being a good person."

"Be a good person?" Lin Hai was a little confused and just listened to Yang Ce's words.

It turns out that the composition of Li Dan's gang is quite complicated. In addition to the direct troops directly under the Li family, there are also many pirate gangs attached to him. The strongest among them are Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang, and the second most powerful ones are Zhong Bin and In addition to the Yang brothers, there are many small groups with hundreds or even hundreds of people.

For these dependents, Li Dan allowed them to farm and fish around Yingang, but generally did not allow them to participate in trade, and did not pay their people wages, but he would provide relief when they were in financial difficulty.At the same time, Li Dan would occasionally requisition their people and ships, or assign them some tasks, in both cases a commission would be given.After Zheng Zhilong came to power, he changed Li Dan's usual practice. He first brought Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang to Hirado and introduced them to the Matsuura family.Then after returning from Japan, he began to pay wages regularly to all his subordinates, no longer distinguishing between direct troops and peripheral dependents.

"Oh? How does Thief Zheng pay his wages? Is it given to the heads of the house, or is it given directly to the brothers below?"

"Hey, you're asking," Yang Ce said with a smile, "Anything with more than 300 people will be given to the head of the family on a per capita basis, and those with less than 300 people will be given directly to the brothers below."

"This guy is quite scheming." Lin Hai also laughed after hearing this. Zheng Zhilong indeed had some tricks, but this operation still left hidden dangers in the future. Li Kuiqi, Liu Xiang, Zhong Bin and others basically maintained their independence. Under Zheng Zhilong's control, After being recruited, they all deserted him.

But there is nothing that can be done about it. These people are all powerful factions. If Zheng Zhilong takes strong measures against them, they will probably break up immediately.Without these few people, Zheng Zhilong's strength will be reduced by at least half, and it is hard to say whether he can still defeat the Fujian officers and soldiers.

"Those leaders who have less than [-] brothers under their command are allowed to be taken over by Thief Zheng?"

"Of course I'm not willing to give in, but there's nothing I can do. Who dares to stop my brothers from getting rich?"

Hearing Yang Ce's words, Lin Hai felt relieved. It seemed that pirate gangs in the East and the West were similar. The captain must represent the interests of the crew, otherwise he would not be able to stay in this position.Zheng Zhilong's move was almost a conspiracy, and those little leaders could only obey.

"Seventh Elder, did Thief Zheng ever say that he wanted to attack Fujian?"

"That's not true. Why does Lin Qianhu think he wants to attack Fujian?"

"It's just a guess. He must have spent a lot of money to act like this, so he must have a plan."

"I don't know about that. When I was in Singang, I didn't hear him say that he had such a plan. Even if he wants to come to Fujian, it will be in March next year at the earliest."

"Why is this?" Lin Hai remembered that Zheng Zhilong in history was the one who started plundering the coast of Fujian in March of the sixth year of Tianqi. Now because of him, Li Dan's death has been advanced several months. He has always been worried that Zheng Zhilong's actions will be worse than those in history. Get on quickly.

"Lin Qianhu doesn't know that every winter is the busiest time in Dongpan. Tens of thousands of fishermen from Fujian go to Dongpan to fish. At this time, we are busy collecting water and have no time to care about anything else. Even if Thief Zheng wants to invade Fujian, but he can't stop the brothers from getting rich."

The so-called water reimbursement is actually a protection fee. Fishermen can use [-]% of their harvest to buy a signed certificate. When they encounter pirates, they can show the certificate to ensure that they are not robbed.For the Yingang pirates who were attached to Li Dan, this was a traditional income. Even Li Guozhu had done this work himself, which shows that his income was not low.

The main commercial fish in Taiwan is mullet. This fish is not only delicious in texture, but is also believed by Chinese medicine to improve spleen qi deficiency and has the effect of consolidating essence and stopping diarrhea.Because of this, mullet is in high demand in Daming.

This is why collecting water reports from fishermen has become an important source of income for the bandits in Zinggang. In fact, not only do they collect protection fees, but the Dutch, who are also prominent, also collect them. The inland sea of ​​Taijiang River controlled by the red-haired ghosts is also an excellent fishing ground.

After hearing Yang Ce's words, Lin Hai secretly calculated in his heart that there are still more than four months until March next year.If everything goes well, maybe he can catch up with the first match between Fujian officers and soldiers and Zheng Zhilong.

Thinking of this, Lin Hai couldn't wait to go to Zhoushan Zhongzhong Institute to take up his post.

(End of this chapter)